The People’s Equality and Democracy (DEM) Party has officially launched a campaign for the upcoming local elections in Turkey, scheduled for 31 March. The kick-off event took place in the southeastern city of Diyarbakır (Amed) on Monday and drew thousands of participants as the party presented co-mayoral candidates for Kurdish-majority cities and regions.
Tülay Hatimoğulları, co-chair of the DEM Party, addressed the assembled crowd, articulating the party’s focus on the right of the Kurdish people to solve their own problems. Hatimoğulları also emphasised a broader commitment to equal citizenship for Alevis and different communities, highlighting the struggle for women, youth and environmental defenders, as well as the rights of workers, labourers and the economically disadvantaged.
In her speech, Hatimoğulları highlighted the negative impact of government appointed trustees in Kurdish-majority regions and stressed the importance of localised governance within a democratic framework. She expressed confidence in the party’s success, declaring:
“We will sweep away the trustees. The local elections on 31 March mean the establishment of decentralised governance in democracy and the realisation of the will of the people.”
Hatimoğulları outlined plans to implement direct democracy across the municipalities, symbolically referring to concrete barriers that the party aims to dismantle. She pledged to serve diverse communities, including Kurds, Turks, Alevis, Armenians and Assyrians, without exclusion.
Addressing the challenges faced by women, Hatimoğulları pointed to the imprisonment of co-mayors and councillors, the appointment of male directors to women’s advice centres and the abolition of women’s policies and directorates by trustees. She urged active participation in the campaign, stressing that the struggle goes beyond voting rights to freedom for all oppressed and exploited groups.
Hatimoğulları concluded with a call for collective action:
“It will be a period where we, as regional and local organisations, make a difference together. We must govern our communities with an understanding of ‘not me, but us.'”